Technical Field
This disclosure relates to remote monitoring and more specifically to systems/processes that acquire sensor data on a global scale and forecast dispersions.
Related Art
Environmental monitoring can protect the public and the environment from contaminants and pathogens that are released into a variety of media including air, soil, and water. Some pollutants are by-products of vehicle emissions, power plants, refineries, industrial and laboratory processes or intentionally released to harm the public and the environment. Soil and water contaminants may be microbiological (e.g., coliform), radioactive (e.g., tritium), inorganic (e.g., arsenic), synthetic organic (e.g., pesticides), and volatile organic compounds (e.g., benzene). Some contaminants can persist for many years and migrate through large regions of soil until they reach water resources, where they may present an ecological or a health threat.
There are regulations on the concentrations of many environmental contaminants in air and water. However, current monitoring methods are costly, time-intensive, geographically restricted, and limited by sampling and analytical techniques. Currently, the ability to deploy and use sensors in global networks is uncertain due to global and technological barriers. A need exists for accurate inexpensive long-term global monitoring platform that can monitor contaminants using sensors that may be configured, operated, and harvested on site or in position.